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(Graphic by Cyan Larson | The Daily Utah Chronicle)
Fashion social media influencers, from platforms like Instagram and tik tok, use their status to push followers into fast fashion culture, keep people away from continuity in their purchase. It is a destructive practice that preys on our desire for instant gratification and negatively impacts the environment.
Fast Mode vs. Slow Mode
When manufacturers mass-produce the trendiest pieces and sell them to vendors at lower prices, they take advantage of what’s in fashion to make a quick buck. This practice, known as fast mode, costs fair wages to employees and produces negative environmental outcomes through the sale of unethically produced and low-quality clothing. One of the main causes of pollution in the world is the high number of landfills for poorly made clothes and trash cans covered with torn and tattered clothes made of cheap dyes in the hands of workers who are not paid a living wage for their work.
To stop the pollution and exploitation created by fast fashion, clothing brands and departments need to achieve sustainability. Prioritizing quality over quantity of clothing items is a cultural idea that people need to adopt if they are to stop the development of the climate crisis.
This means storing clothes as long as possible, taking care of every piece, buying less, and being a smarter consumer of products. This method is called slow mode, is a more eco-friendly approach to wearing clothes and imparts the mentality that fashion is all about versatility, not the social internet’s newest craze.
Clothing Culture
Social media influencers have control over their mass of followers in ways we don’t yet know. Whether it’s buying clothes online or viewing store ads, when your favorite influencer promotes a product, it convinces you to want it.
The buzz created by TikTok that goes viral can penetrate millions of phones, prompting fashion trends to take shape quickly and almost unnoticed. One of the main factors at play in both fast fashion and social media is instant gratification. Influencers receive feedback and money from social media interactions, while followers get satisfaction from owning what is considered popular.
Fast mode instant gratification is dangerous for living environment and the way clothes are worn and treated. Production, manufacturing and transportation for fast modes not only lead to the creation of greenhouse gases, but also involve a large number of waste by-products.
In New York Times article entitled “How Fast Fashion Is Destroying The Planet,”author Tatiana Schlossberg says, “More than 60 percent of fabric fibers are now synthetic, coming from fossil fuels, so if and when our clothes end up in landfills (about 85 percent of textile waste in the United States is dumped in landfills or incinerated), will not rot. It’s not just a matter of production costs, as fashion increases carbon emissions and water use, but how our habit of littering damages ecosystems.
Human Impact
The validation that influencers receive from likes and comments reflects their audience and triggers similar behavior. It hurts our wallets and our perception of fashion, offending the belief that having more clothes equals having better style. The endless cycle continues, as massive spending on cheap fashion causes poor conditions for workers and strains resources. The time has come for sustainability and slow fashion to rise as majority practice.
As a consumer, don’t fall victim to cheap runway looks to buy more for your money.Of course, no one is perfect, and neither is every brand that promotes sustainability in its production. However, for the sake of society as a whole, people need to adapt to a different mindset to understand the important role fashion plays in our lives.
Whether you love or hate fashion as a concept, everyone wears clothes and participates in an industry, designed to produce what is in demand and what is in style. This is a domino effect because the sustainability of fashion production is getting higher and higher, becoming the new normal. This places the onus on consumers to shop smartly. Fashion can then mean more than just a simple trend, but as something that lasts.
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